Love and War
by GodofDespair
Summary: The world's in the grip of a terrible civil war,just when things are looking like they could go on forever an unexpected hero appears.SephTi
1. Prolouge

Disclaimer: I don't own ff7,it's characters, locations, or the word materia

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Ok this is my 1st story, and even I have no confidence in it. So please some constructive criticism is most appreciated but please don't be too harsh. And as can obviously be seen I'm new to this site so any pointers would be most appreciated.

PROLOUGE

It's been 10 years since Sephiroth's defeat at the Northern Crater, and the land was in the grip of a brutal civil war. For the past 8 years Shinra had been fighting with Avalanche, which had evolved from a simple terrorist group into a full blown nation with their capital at Gold Saucer. Why they choose that as their capital even they aren't sure, but oh well. The war wasn't going well for either side as the 5 year stalemate drug on.

Not all of the original members of Avalanche were for the war, sure the all stuck around and helped in the beginning but after the causalities started they started to have second thoughts. Cait Sith was sniped in one of the first battles, the soldier responsible was immediately promoted to 1st class. Red had gone down defending Cosmo Canyon and Cloud had killed himself to be with Aerith. The rest were alive and about as well as they could be. Barrett was leader of the Avalanche nation, naturally, Cid was head of the Avalanche air force; Vincent had disappeared with Yuffie hot on his heels; and Tifa, tired of bloodshed, had gone and opened a bar in one of the very few neutral cities.

And that's where are story begins…


	2. Chapter 1

Ch.1 Sudden Violence

Tifa sighed as she watched the news, while washing the counter of her bar, another thousand dead in yet another pointless battle. She started to wonder if the war was ever going to end and if the world would ever be the same again. Not even Sephiroth had caused as much damage as this pointless war. She felt a tear fall from her eye as she remembered all the friends she'd lost.

"You ok Tifa?" asked her barmaid, Alice, "Is something wrong?"

"No, I'm fine…"Tifa lied, "just thinking about my friends." But it was more then that, she hadn't admitted it but she was also sad Cloud had chosen Aerith over her, and while she wasn't angry with her friends she was envious of what they had found in their love. She really hoped she could find someone someday, everyone that was left had someone; Barrett had married again and set about raising his daughter while trying to win a war, Cid had Shera, and while the wouldn't openly admit it Vincent and Yuffie had each other. She had no one and she was slowly sinking further and further into despair.

Suddenly the sound of gunfire, explosions, and screams could be heard from outside.

"Bandits?" asked Alice nervously.

"I've never heard of a bandit group with artillery," Tifa replied worriedly. The front door burst open and the town's militia captain came puffing in.

"Tifa, it's Shinra we need your help," he panted breathlessly "we can't hold them on our own."

"Alice go hide in the basement," Tifa ordered, "I'll be right there."

"Please hurry," breathed the captain as he hurried back out the door. Tifa rushed up the stairs to the bar's second level and into her room, where she flung open a chest and grabbed Premium Heart, a few potions, and some materia before rushing back downstairs and out the door. The battle wasn't hard to find, all she had to do was follow the screams.

Things were worse then she could have imagined, SOLDIER was bulldozing over the towns defenders. She watched in horror as an artillery shell landed on a group of combatants sending body parts flying everywhere. Before she could fully recover a group of soldiers was bearing down on her. Evading the sword lung from one she swung around and delivered a roundhouse kick to the captain of the squad instantly killing him. Unfortunately unlike the bandits she'd gotten used to fighting, soldiers didn't flee just because their captain was killed and they were still 10 on one. She held them off for a few minutes before finally going down under a flurry of swords and staffs, she would have died then and there if it hadn't been for a sudden flash of black and silver that cut the soldiers down. The last thing she could remember seeing before she passed out was a tall silver haired man with a long sword glistening with the blood of the fallen.

Author's note: If you haven't noticed I'm not much of a writer in my opinion, but any reviews would be really helpful.


	3. Chapter 2

Authors Note: Here's the second chapter in my awful story, please review.

CH.2 An Awkward Meeting

Tifa sat up slowly, she was still throbbing from the beating she'd taken earlier. She was in a bed in an apartment somewhere, apparently this wasn't all just a bad dream.

"So your finally awake," drawled a cold, yet familiar voice from the darkest corner of the room. Tifa looked towards it and immediately froze in terror as she recognized the owner. Sephiroth stopped polishing masumane and smirked.

"Surprised to see me?" he chided amusedly.

"Your supposed to be…" Tifa fumbled, trying to gain control of herself.

"Dead?" Sephiroth finished, "No, I assure you I'm very much alive." He resumed polishing his sword seemly paying Tifa no mind whatsoever. Tifa took several deep breaths and tried to calm her shaken nerve. After several minutes her hate for the man finally won out over her fear and she addressed him again.

"Alright Sephiroth, what are you doing here?" she spat in disgust, "Last time I saw you, you were nothing but a rotting corpse in the Northern Crater." She looked him straight in the eye, half expecting to be burned to death be the anger that would no doubt be there. Instead he just looked sad, extremely sad, in fact if she hadn't known better she would have that remark hurt him. What she didn't know is he was hurt, not by the comment but by the venom in her voice.

'What's wrong with me?' he thought, 'Why should I care what she thinks of me?'

After a few moments Sephiroth answered.

"The Lifestream brought me back, it seems the planet is tired of the war so I'm here to end it." Sephiroth explained.

"You? The planet chose you as it's champion?" Tifa questioned, the venom in her voice intensifying as she went on, "That's a bit out there isn't it? A monster like you the planets champion? I'd choose Jenova over you." A small smile of satisfaction crept it's way onto her face when she saw his pained expression, yet she didn't fell all that triumphant. In fact she felt awful, she had just trashed the person who had saved her life. She knew all about Sephiroth's childhood from Hojo's journals, all the tortures he'd gone through, the torments, the trials. But he still burned down my home, one side of her mind argued. That was 13 years ago people change, the other shot back .

"…your hatred is understandable," Sephiroth said, "but it wasn't really my fault. You see I was born into this world to defeat Jenova, but I lost. She took over my mind and forced me to do her will. I'll never forgive myself for what I did, and don't expect you to either." Tifa was too shocked to say anything. Where was the cold blooded psycho she had fought all those years ago? Who was this sad, broken man in front of her?

" I'm sorry…" she whispered.

"It's ok," Sephiroth replied sadly, "I'm not deserving of kindness after all I've caused. I'm a monster and deserve to be treated as such."

"Don't talk like that…" Tifa started not entirely certain of how to go on.

"I'll take you to your house, you can wait there till the Avalanche guys get here to pick you up." Sephiroth said.

"Avalanche is coming?" Tifa asked astounded, "Why would they be coming, and how would you know?"

"One of their spies spotted me carrying you in here and called for back up," Sephiroth said, sounding a little agitated at having to explain himself, "from the sound of it I'd say they're sending at least half their air force in an attempt to rescue you."

"Your kidding me!" Tifa exclaimed, more then a little surprised. But then again, she thought, this sounds exactly like the kind of thing Barrett and Cid would do. Those two were always so insistent on protecting her, they seemed to think she couldn't take care of her self.

"So why don't you stay?" Tifa asked, an idea suddenly coming to her, "You could fight with us and end this war, thats your mission right to end the war?" Smiling hopefully she looked at him. He looked her straight in the eyes and said,

"I can't"

"Well why not? It be easier then trying to win the war on your own," she replied.

"Tifa," Sephiroth explained, "I know your not going to believe me and even if you do your not going to like the truth, but the planet told me before it sent me back that it doesn't want either of the opposing sides to win this war. It wants them both to be destroyed."

"What...but why?" Tifa asked hardly believing her ears, "Avalanche is fighting for the planet,why would it want them to be destroyed?"

"It's afraid," Sephiroth put simply, "It doesn't want any group to have to much power."

"I see," Tifa said, "So now what will you do?"

"I'm afraid i can't tell you," Sephiroth replied, "can't allow my enemy to know of my plans now, can I?"

"I suppose not," muttered Tifa. For several more minutes they sat in silence, neither acknowledging the others existence. Finally Sephiroth stood up and strode towards the door.

"Your in no condition to walk," he stated simply, "so i could either leave you here or carry you to your house. Whats it gonna be?" Tifa looked up at him, not certain what to do. Should she trust this lunatic? No he wasn't a lune anymore, that must be why she was trusting him so much. There was no madness left in those eyes, just sorrow and a strange longing. What could he be longing for she wondered. Forgiveness?She'd have to think more on it later.

"Carry me to my bar if it's not to much trouble." Tifa asked.

"As you wish," Sephiroth said, picking her up. She shivered as he touched her.

'Why do I feel so safe in his arms?' Tifa found herself wondering, 'Why can't I hate him?Why?'

After a few minutes the arrived at the bar, only to find the door locked. After kicking it in Sephiroth laid Tifa down on one of the benches. He stood up and walked towards the door.

"Goodbye, for your sake I hope we do not meet again," Sephiroth said as he started to walk out of the bar,only to be stopped by Tifa's soft voice.

"Wait," she said, " can't you stay a little longer?" He turned around and opened his mouth, but whatever he was about to say was lost as a high pitched scream sounded from over near the basement stairs. They both looked over just in time to see the thin,black haired barmaid pass out from fear.

"Oh Alice," Tifa laughed under her breath, "you never were a brave one." Unfortunately her scream had distracted Sephiroth long enough for the Avalanche spy that had been following them to stick a trank dart in his neck.

"Ugh," he groaned as the drug started to take affect. He stumbled and barely caught himself on a nearby table.

"I got him,now finish the job!" came a cry from outside. Seconds later five men in green Avalanche uniforms ran in and started pummeling Sephiroth with shock sticks. He held them off for a few minutes, but the drug was affecting his reflexes and he soon fell before the soldiers onslaught. They just kept beating him though.

"STOP IT!" Tifa screamed trying to stand. 'I can't just sit here, I can't just let them do this' she thought. But they paid her no mind, one of them stopped and pulled out a cell and called someone.

"Admiral Highwind, we got him." the soldier said.

"Well it's about damn time you lazy asses,we've been waiting for a good 20 minutes now." came a gruff voice on the other end, " Is Tifa alright?"

"The girl is unharmed sir." the soldier replied, behind him his comrades had finally stopped their viscous onslaught and started to tie a battered and bruised Sephiroth up. Tifa couldn't suppress her tears at the sight of him.

"She damn well better be," came Cid's voice from the phone, "we'll be down in 5." The soldier hung up the phone and threw a few more cheap shots at Sephiroth before coming over to Tifa,who by this time had broke into sobs at her uselessness.

"Are you alright Miss Lockheart?" asked the soldier,putting his hand on her shoulder.

"DON'T TOUCH ME YOU MONSTERS!" Tifa screamed and broke down into hysterics.

'Why should I care what they do to him?' she wondered, 'He's finally getting a taste of his own medicine.'

'No,no, no. Stop thinking like that. He's not the same person, besides he wouldn't have deserved this even when he was a bloodthirsty psychopath.' she scolded herself. She continued on yelling,weeping,and spouting gibberish for a few minutes before one of the soldiers got fed up a stuck her with a tranquillizer dart. Minutes later everyone was being loaded onto the new and improved Highwind.

Author's Note:So how was it?Horrible?I know it was fairly dull but later chapters will have more action. So any way,please review.


	4. Chapter 3

Disclaimer:Case you forgot,Square Enix owns these characters not me. Though i wish i did

Warning:Cid is in this chapter so expect swearing.

CH.3

An Unpleasant Meeting

Sephiroth groaned and lifted his head. His arm's and legs were chained to the wall,and the was a length of rope around his neck.

"Your slipping boy,"came a voice from across the room. Sephiroth looked up and recognized Cid Highwind. "I was expecting to loss three damn platoons trying to take you down, but here you are chained up like a #$! beast and we haven't lost a man." Cid continued. He then walked up and put his face right in Sephiroth's, "And here i was thinking you were some kind of warrior, my mistake." And with that Sephiroth promptly spit in Highwind's face.

"Why you #$#$&4(," Cid sputtered and promptly commenced beating Sephiroth. After a minute he let up, "Looks like we'll have to teach you some manners,though i think we should just kill you right now and be done with it."

"Then why don't you?" coughed Sephiroth, "Go ahead you gutless worm impale me. Can't do it can you?Can't muster the courage to end my life?" This of course only further angered Highwind,but instead of beating him Cid simply slugged him a few times and continued his interrogation.

"What you do to Tifa you fucking monster?" demanded Cid angrily.

"What are you talking about,I did nothing to that Lockheart women." Sephiroth spat back, "Don't believe me,then ask her yourself."For some reason being accused of hurting Tifa really infuriated Sephiroth.

'What is this?' he thought, 'why should i care about her?'

"Oh I'll ask her,and if she even hints that you harmed her I'll..." Cid threatened.

"You'll what?Kill me?I'll come back. Torture me?What could you possibly do that I haven't already experienced, or worse?" Sephiroth laughed, "You don't scare me little man,nothing from this planet scares me." Cid punched him in the gut,and stormed out muttering curses.

'Finally,' Sephiroth thought, 'Now why is it I'm starting to care about that woman?'

Tifa groaned and for the second time in the space of five hours woke up with a migraine in an unfamiliar bed.

"Hey Tifa, you ok?He didn't hurt you did he?" came a deep voice Tifa recognized as Barrett's.

"Where am i?" asked Tifa confusedly.

"Your safe,your in Avalanche's Capitol Building. And don't worry about that monster we've got him locked up so he won't be able to hurt you again." Barrett answered.

"He didn't hurt me, he saved me." Tifa growled,anger building in her voice, "Then you up and attack him for no reason, your soldiers beat him to a pulp after drugging him so he couldn't defend himself!You deserve to be beaten for that!"

"Whoa,whoa,whoa. Settle down Tifa it's obvious your delusional," Barrett started trying to calm Tifa down, "you can't rea..."

"DELUSIONAL!?I'M NOT DELUSIONAL!I NOW WHAT I SAW!" Tifa screamed, she probably would have continued on but the door opened and Cid came in.

"Hey Ti..." he started.

"AND YOU! YOU ORDERED THEM TO DO THAT!YOUR JUST AS RESPOSIBLE!"Tifa screeched at him.

"Calm down, Tifa calm down." Barrett pleaded.

"CALM DOWN!CALM DOWN!" Tifa continued ranting for a few minutes before stopping to catch her breath. Cid jumped on the opportunity.

"Tifa," he said drawing a breath, "WHAT THE !$!$# IS YOUR #$!#$ PROBLEM!"

"Ya Teef," said Barrett,who was more surprised then angry, "it's not like we dragged in some kid off the street. This is Sephiroth we're talking about,nobody hates him more then you Teef. We all know that, so why are you so mad about this?"

"WHY?WHY?..." Tifa spluttered,then stopped. Why was she so mad about it? If she had met him wouldn't she have done the same thing? But they hadn't seen what she'd seen, this wasn't that same man. He didn't have that insane glow in his eyes, all she saw in him was sorrow. She found herself feeling sorry for him, it was like all the evil that had possessed him was gone.

"I don't know," Tifa said at length, "It's like he's a completely different person, all that evil and madness is gone. All I saw in his eyes was sorrow."

"Your too trusting Teef," Cid scolded, lighting up a cigarette.

"That still doesn't give you the right to treat him like that," Tifa shot back, "you don't know his past, what it must have been like to be Hojo's child or having Jenova dictate your every move. He already payed for his sins,he doesn't deserve this." It took them a while to think of a comeback and when they did it wasn't even a very good one.

"Ya well he's still Sephiroth," said Barrett, "Just because he's sorry doesn't mean he should escape the consequences." Cid nodded his head in agreement.

"He did pay the consequences, we killed him remember?" Tifa said.

"He ain't dead now is he?" said Cid, "Maybe we never killed him?"

"We did kill him the planet brought him back to end this..." Tifa trailed off realizing it wasn't her place to explain what Sephiroth was doing back.

"Wadda ya mean da planet brought im back?Sephiroth is da planet's worst enemy." Barrett said with a staunch belief.

"No,Jenova is the planets worst enemy,"Tifa corrected, "Sephiroth was just a puppet,not a very happy one either."

For the next few minutes everyone just sat around quietly. Finally Barrett sighed and got up.

"Well, I phoned Vince and Yuffie, they'll be here in an hour. We got im chained up in the detention level if you wanna see im." he said.

"Fine take me there."Tifa replied, and stood up shakily, "though it looks like I'll need some help getting there." Cid offered an arm and Tifa took it. After taking an elevator down to the basement they walked down several hallways before coming to a stop in front of a window. Tifa gasped in horror when she saw Sephiroth's broken form. He looked and met her gaze but dropped his almost immediately, ashamed to be seen in such a weak state. Before she knew it Tifa was weeping.

Author's Note:So what do you think?Not the best i know but it can't be all that bad is it?


	5. Chapter 4

Ch.4 Death and Demons

A red shadow raced across the plains, speeding towards Gold Saucer. Every few minutes or so Vincent would look back to ensure his companion was still following. Yuffie swore she'd make Sephiroth pay for all the running she'd had to endure. They had been in Costa Del Sol when Vincent got the call from Barrett. They started off immediately, running as fast as they could for the past forty minutes. Yuffie was pretty fast but she just couldn't keep up with Vincent, the vampire was always at least 100 yards in front of her.

' I don't see what's the big hurry,' Yuffie found herself thinking, 'Barrett said they'd already caught him.' Her vision started to blur, she let out a distressed yelp as she tripped on a rock. Vincent heard it and was at her side in a second.

"Yuffie!Yuffie!" he cried frantically until he realized she had just passed out from exhaustion. Vincent felt a small smile creep onto his lips as he looked down at his little ninja, he owed her more then she would ever know. After Lucrecia's death Vincent had locked his heart away in darkness with the hopes no one would ever find it, but Yuffie did. She brought him out of his darkness and showed him once more what love felt like. Though he really couldn't imagine how she could love someone like him or why she'd chosen so old. Sure physically he was 27, but in reality he was pushing 70. But these were thoughts for another time,for now he had to get to Gold Saucer. So he scooped Yuffie up into his arms and ran on.

After a few minutes Tifa finally regained control of herself and noticed a group of people coming their way. Two of them wore the forest green Avalanche uniforms, another four were in lab coats, but it was the leader that caught her attention. She was of medium height, had really dark skin, and shoulder length blond hair tied in a ponytail. She was wearing a lab coat, a knee length white skirt, and stelleto heels.

"Darling, wadda you doing ere?" Barrett asked the woman,surprise evident in his voice.

"I'm here for the subject," she replied matter of factly. "Who is that?"she asked pointing to Tifa.

"Oh dis here's Tifa," Barrett said, "Tifa dis heres my wife, Madeline." Tifa walked over and shook Madeline's hand.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," she said.

"Likewise," Madeline replied in a cold, disinterested voice, "I'm going to take the subject to the lab now if thats alright with you dear?"

"Ya go ahead, just be careful." Barrett said,more then a little concerned.

"As always," Madeline replied, "alright, go get him." And with that her cohorts entered Sephiroth's cell and untied him. They injected some stuff into him, then bound him to an operating table that happened to be in the room.

"Wait a minute what's going on?" Tifa asked, panic building in her voice. "Where are you taking him?!"

"To our lab of course," Madeline explained in an irritated voice, "if we can figure out how Hojo engineered this monstrosity, we can apply that to our own troops. The advantages this would give us are fairly obvious."

"NO!" Tifa shouted, once again attempting to defend the man she used to hate with every ounce of her soul, "You can't do that!" Madeline ignored her and walked off in the direction she'd come from. The soldiers were pushing the bed with the scientists all circling around it writing down theories,observations and such.

"Stop!" Tifa yelled at them but they paid no mind, "Hey I said STOP!" She ran over and punched one of the soldiers in the gut, making him fall to his knees. The other lunged at her but she dodged easily and delivered a roundhouse kick to his face,knocking him out. By this time Barrett and Cid had gotten over their shock and ran to restrain Tifa.

"Tifa calm down!" Barrett said in an almost pleading voice. But the harder the tried to restrain her the harder Tifa struggled. Madeline had showed back up and pulled a syringe from her pocket.

"Hold her still," she commanded. As she stuck the syringe into her arm Tifa let out a desperate howl. Hearing this gave Sephiroth the strength he needed to break his bonds. In a second he was up,he slammed Madeline's head into the narrow hallway's concrete wall then he broke Cid's nose with his fist causing him to double over. He then head butted Highwind knocking him out. Seeing his wife and bro get manhandled sent Barrett into a blinding rage.

"Why you damn coward!" he screamed as he opened fire. Fortunately Barrett wasn't much of a marksman to begin with,add Sephiroth's speed and the fact that he was blind with rage and it wasn't much of a surprise not one bullet found it's mark.

"Tsk,tsk tsk..." Sephiroth mocked appearing right in front of Barrett. Sephiroth grabbed him by the neck and threw him through the wall. One of the downed soldiers pushed something and alarms started sounding. Sephiroth walked over to where Tifa lay and pulled her up gently.

"Goodbye milady," he said, "It would be best if we never met again."

"But..." Tifa said,unsure of how to go on, "But I don't wanna lose you."

Sephiroth looked down at her with a confused look on his face, then he leaned over, wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her. Tifa wrapped her fingers in his hair and gave over to the moment. For what seemed like ages they stood in each others arms, and for the first time in what seemed like forever Tifa felt happy. But this happiness was not to last as a squad of soldiers rounded the corner.

"Forgive me," Sephiroth whispered, and with that he vanished down the hall the soldiers hot on his heels. Tifa fell to her knees overcome with emotions. For several minutes she sat there in a dazed state trying to decide what to do. After a few minutes of thought she got up, yanked the needle out of her arm and ran after Sephiroth.

"At least none of my friends saw that," she mumbled as she ran in the direction Sephiroth went.

Madeline smirked as she thought of how best to use this new found knowledge against Sephiroth.

The soldiers cornered Sephiroth in the theater district, which had been converted into a war room. Masumane materialized in his hand and the dance began. The drugs kept him from ever reaching his full potential but he was still an amazing sight to behold. With an effortless grace that a dancer would have envied Sephiroth set about killing the Avalanche soldier squads. Sephiroth whirled about slicing through soldier after soldier in his majestic dance of death. In a minute it was over, all but one of the 52 soldiers were dead. Sephiroth grabbed the survivor by the throat and slammed him against the wall.

"Tell me how to get out of here," he ordered, "before I rip your lungs out."

"T-t-that way," the soldier stammered pointing towards the door, "just g-go d-d-down the stairs, it's the third door on the left."

"Thank you," Sephiroth said an evil grin appearing on his face, "I hope you enjoy the after life."

"W-what??!!!!" the soldier exclaimed, "but i told you what you wanted to know!"

"Whats your point?"

"W-well I t-t-t-told you so you wouldn't kill me!"

"When did we make that arrangement?"

The soldier screamed as Sephiroth tossed him into the air and casually sliced him in half diagonally. He surveyed his work with satisfaction. Not one soldier was still in more then three pieces, blood drenched the room, and organs adorned the furniture. He strode out leaving the butcher shop from hell behind him. Another ten soldiers fell at the top of the stairs, and another ten a level after that. In fact every two or three levels Sephiroth would have to stop and massacre another squad or two.

'These pathetic worms are growing tiresome,' Sephiroth thought as he descended. But gradually the waves became more and more tiresome as robots,fiends, and the Avalanche version of the Turks were called out. The fiends were pushovers: mostly mandragoras, goblins, mono drives, 2 faces and a few Ghirofelgos. The robots didn't do much better: just some salvaged mighty grunts and a few 1st rays. And while the Avalanche Turks(known as Snakes) were good, they weren't trained for this sorta thing. Sure they could out fight any of the regulars, but they were used to guerrilla warfare,hit and run type stuff. They weren't prepared to face a foe like Sephiroth in close quarters, needless to say their ranks were severely thinned this day.

After dispatching anther wave Sephiroth stopped and drank a few potions he looted from corpses on the way down . He looked over the railing and after seeing the almost endless mess of stairs contemplated whether he should have made that soldier suffer for not telling him where the elevator was.

Tifa couldn't believe how fast Sephiroth was moving. She knew he was strong, the numberless corpses she had passed were a testament to that, but she figured they might slow him down long enough for her to catch up to him. She still wasn't entirely certain why she didn't hate him,why she didn't want to hurt him for all the pain he'd caused her. Maybe it was because she saw a different person there, or maybe it was just because he reminded her of Cloud. Albeit a taller, more intelligent Cloud with a massive debt to the planet and all it's inhabitants.

She paused to catch her breath and listen for the sounds of fighting. Sure enough she heard them, which was no surprise since they'd been heard off and on for the past ten minutes, but this time they sounded closer. She looked down and saw flashes from gunfire about seven levels down. Tifa started off with renewed vigor, maybe she could love him. Maybe... well she wasn't about to let a chance at happiness pass her by.

Half a minute later she came upon the site of Sephiroth's latest massacre, it was the biggest yet. Corpses of fiends,regulars,and Snakes were strewn about with the occasional machine. But there was one thing that caught Tifa's eye, masumane was sticking out of the corpse of a Snake captain. Sephiroth would never leave his beloved sword behind. In fact it was a surprise he wasn't still tearing the detention level to pieces in search of his trench coat.

"Tifa..." The whisper was so hoarse she could barely make it out. Tifa quickly determined it's source as a man sitting with his back against the wall. He was drenched in oil,and blood. It took her a few moments to realize that the figure before her was Sephiroth.

"Oh my..." she said as she rushed over and dropped to her knees next to him, "What happened? Are you alright? Can you stand?"

"One of those guys... the camo...cough. got... me...think his weapon... poisoned." Sephiroth managed to say.

"Stay here," Tifa said, panic raising in her voice, "I'll find an antidote!" After several minutes of digging through the pockets of corpses she finally found one.

"This should help," she said as she injected it into him, "Now put your disgusting arm around me and lets be off."

"No... leave me," Sephiroth whispered, "leave...before i kill you like... URGH!" Tifa jabbed him in the side with her elbow.

"I'll not put up with your foolishness or your empty threats," Tifa scolded, "Now pick up your sword and lets get going."

"Why are you doing this?" Sephiroth asked as he picked up masumane.

"Well I figured it was time for me to start dating again and you seemed like my kind of guy." Tifa replied, " Though I'm more fond of my knight saving me then me saving my knight." Sephiroth growled and Tifa burst into laughter.

"Come on lets go before more soldiers show up."

Unbeknownst to them the pursuit had been temporarily called off.

The leaders of Avalanche met in the boardroom, since Sephiroth had left such a mess in the war room. Cid,Barrett, Madeline, Alfred(leader of the regulars), and Seth(head of the Snakes) were discussing what they should do about Sephiroth.

"I say we launch the damn airships and bomb the motherfucker when he comes out the front door!" shouted a rather angry Cid.

"That wouldn't work and you know it," Alfred, never known for his cool head, snapped, " we'd just harm ourselves and let Shinra know we're vulnerable."

"I agree," said Seth,as usual there wasn't a hint of emotion in his voice, "I think we should just let him go."

"Let im go!?!?!" Barrett shouted, "You outta yo mind? We can't jus let dat monster walk free!"

"I'm sorry sir but we just don't have the man power to stop him," Seth replied, " At the moment we've lost 1600 troops attempting to kill him."

"Sixteen-hundred?! How could we have lost that many?" Alfred demanded.

"We just kept sending them after him, battalion after battalion fell on the stairs in an attempt to kill him." Seth ansewered.

"Kill him?" Madeline spoke up, irritation evident in her voice, " I told you I wanted him alive!"

"We can't catch him,and even if we could he'd likely just escape again and take more men with him!" Alfred yelled, angry at the fact that what he was saying was true.

Silence followed, everyone was trying to come up with a plan. As unlikely as it sounds Barrett was the one that came up with it.

"I'll call Vince," he announced. So he did.

"Vince where are ya?" Barrett asked.

"2 miles from Gold Saucer," the vampire replied.

"Hurry it up,Sephiroth is loose and he's got Tifa!" Barrett all but shouted into the phone.

"Understood." And with that Vincent hung up. The leaders of Avalanche shared a grin, after going through all those men Sephiroth would have to be tired. Chaos could take him easy.

Even before Vincent could hang up the phone Yuffie had bounded out of his arms and started running.

"Comon Vinny!" She shouted anxiously over her shoulder, "We gotta save Tifa!" Yet even with her head start she could not match the demon's increased speed as he flew across the desert.

By the time they reached the bottom floor some of Sephiroth's strength had returned and he could walk on his own. He paused at the doors.

"Will you follow me Tifa?" Sephiroth asked looking her straight in the eye, "The journey ahead is hard and I fear it will take many weeks for my strength to recover."

"Yeah I'll come," Tifa said in a cheery voice, "besides whose going to save you if I'm not there?"

"You'll never let me live this down will you?" Sephiroth asked.

"Never." she answered playfully.

They walked out the doors into the training camp that had grown to replace the shacks and scrap of the previous town. Yet it was oddly quite, more like a ghost town then a boot camp.

"Where is everyone?" Sephiroth said half to himself, "I would have expected some form of last ditch attempt to kill me or something."

"Maybe they're all hiding?" Tifa suggested.

"But from wh..." he never got to finish the question that was just answered,as Chaos/Vincent flew in and threw Sephiroth through a building.

"Are you alright Tifa?" it asked in that strange twisted voice it had, it sounded half Vincent half demonic.Unfortunatly for him Sephiroth still had some fight left in him, he stood up and shot himself at the demon. For several minutes their battle raged on the ground, then they took to the air bouncing off buildings and such while exchanging blows. Tifa knew she should say something but she just couldn't shake off the awe she felt long enough to get the words out.

'What is he?' she found herself thinking,'He just single handedly killed his way through a small army, was poisoned, drugged, and still has the strength to go toe to toe with Chaos. Amazing.' Tifa's reverie was broken when a small ninja with a weapon disproportionate to her body slapped her in the face.

"Ow," Tifa said, " Yuffie what was that for?"

"Sorry Teef, but I've been yelling at you for two minutes now," Yuffie said, " I know Vince is gorgeous but he's mine, and we have more important things to do like beat Sephiroth."

"Beat Sephiroth?" Tifa asked not quite back to reality. Yuffie taped her fist on Tifa's head.

"Hello? Earth to Tifa, who does it look like Vinny's fighting?"

"What...oh," Tifa stammered finally coming back to reality, "Stop!Stop the fighting we're not enemies here!" It had somewhat of the desired reaction as everyone stopped and stared at her.

"Um Tifa, are you feeling ok?" Yuffie asked.

"I'm fine now can we please just talk this out?" Tifa yelled,it worked Vincent turned back into Vincent and Sephiroth put his sword up. They were all so shocked at her outburst they just went along with what she said.

"Ok now we gotta get outta here we can talk once we're away," Tifa ordered, nobody moved. They all just stood where they were trying to figure out what to do.

"Didn't you here me I said move!" Tifa ordered again,this time in a much louder more commanding voice. By this time Yuffie started to see the picture and herded Vincent out while Tifa did the same with Sephiroth.

Meanwhile the Avalanche leaders who had been watching the security camera footage all stood with their mouths open and one thought on their minds. _What in the world just happened?_

Author's Note: I apologize to my reviewers for releasing this monstrosity on you.If you couldn't tell this chapter gave me attacks from writers block prevented me from being able to pull this chapter together. After the next coulple of chapters the story should get better.At least i hope it will.


	6. Chapter 5

Disclaimer:For legal reasons I'm supposed to say I don't own FF7,it's characters,it's locations,or the word materia

Ch.5

After marching a little ways out into the desert Vincent and Sephiroth had finally started to get over their shock at Tifa giving them orders. Vincent demanded answers while Sephiroth just sorta sat back and attempted to order his thoughts.

"Ok Tifa whats going on?" Vincent demanded, a bit outta character for him, but then again he had spent the last 4 years with Yuffie.

"Ya Teef," Yuffie said, "Tell us whats going on."

"Yes Miss Lockheart I to would like to know why you dragged us out into the middle of this desert." Sephiroth put in rather sarcastically.

"Hey watch it buddy," Tifa said, "This is the second time I've saved your life today." Sephiroth groaned, Yuffie giggled and Vincent just stared.

"Somebody loves Sephiroth!" Yuffie chimed.

"Oh shut up Yuffie," Tifa replied, "We're just dating." Sephiroth looked like he'd been struck by lightning and Vincent fell on his face out of shock.

"W-w-wha..." Sephiroth stammered.

"Your kidding." Vincent said as he stood up.

"Oh Tifa I'm so happy for you!" Yuffie shouted jumping up and down, "Even if he is a raving lunatic."

"He's not crazy any more,just look in his eyes." Tifa said . Yuffie ran over and stared straight at Sephiroth, who was still staring and working his mouth trying to come up with something. Vincent wasn't doing much better.

"Yep he's not crazy," Yuffie said cheerily, "Though he doesn't look all that bright."

"Thats alright I'm sure we can teach him a thing or two." Tifa said. The pair burst out laughing while their men just stared. After a couple of minutes they stopped.

"Well we should get going," Tifa announced, "Comon Sephy."

"WHAT?" Sephiroth burst, this was just too much nobody mutilated his name like that and got away with it.

"I said comon, we should be going before Avalanche sends out search parties." Tifa said.

"No, not that what did you just call me?" Sephiroth ground out, he was not in the most pleasant mood. He was covered in small wounds,worn out, his beloved trench coat was missing, his usually flawless hair was matted down with oil and blood, and now on top of that his name was being dissected, so ya not in a good mood.

"Sephy, it's my new name for you since Sephiroth just sounds to formal," Tifa said with a giggle.

"I don't know Sephy," Yuffie said, fighting a losing battle to control her laughter, " I think it suites you." Sephiroth shot her a glare that had the promise of pain in it, it shut her up for about five seconds,then she started laughing even harder. Sephiroth opened his mouth to say something but Tifa cut him off.

"Oh let it go Sephy," she said.

"Would you stop calling me that!" Sephiroth yelled.

"No, I like it." Tifa said, once again bursting into a fit of giggles, " Don't you Yuffie?"

"Ya, it defiantly has a nice ring to it," Yuffie barely managed to say between giggles.

"Don't I have a say in this?" Sephiroth asked with a groan.

"NO!" they said in unison and promptly resumed laughing.

It went on like this for the next few minutes, Sephiroth making threats and demands which only caused the girls to laugh harder. Vincent wasn't so tickled, his hold tightened on Death Penalty every time Sephiroth threatened his beloved ninja,in fact the only thing that kept him from ending Sephiroth once again is that this was the first time in years he'd seen Tifa truly happy. They finally ran out of breath and Vincent got the chance to say...

"As fun as frying out here in the desert is I think we ought to be going." He said.

"Alright, but where?" Tifa asked.

"Lets find a river," Sephiroth suggested, "I need to wash this stuff out of my hair." They agreed, they needed water anyway. After a few hours of marching they came upon an oasis. It was a rather large oasis with a spring that ran off in a couple of different directions, trees, some undergrowth, it was like a mini jungle. Sephiroth washed up in one of the smaller ponds, hidden behind some convenient bushes. Yuffie thought it would be funny to steal his pants and boats and leave him sitting in the water naked, but there was on thing she hadn't counted on. Sephiroth had no modesty.

"Have you guys seen my pants?" Sephiroth asked walking over to where everyone else was siting. Tifa and Yuffie blushed scarlet and stared. Vincent promptly punched Yuffie in the back of the head.

"Ow Vinny what was that for?"

"Stop staring at other men, you belong to me."

"I don't _belong _to anyone!" The argument quickly spiraled out of control and into a wrestling match. Tifa probably would have have stared at this extremely uncharacteristic thing for Vincent, but her eyes were glued to Sephirtoth's naked form.

"Tifa...my pants?" Sephiroth asked again, a little agitation in his voice. She just sat and worked her mouth silently.

"Y-y-yuffie took em," Tifa managed finally, "ask her." He walked over and separated the to struggling figures. He held one in each arm.

"Yuffie, my pants?" He said growing fairly tired of the stares and asking.

"Right I'll get em," she said and bounded off.

"Vincent, take inventory on our supplies." Sephiroth ordered releasing the ex-Turk. Unsurprisingly Vincent did as he was told, as he started Yuffie brought Sephiroth his pants and Tifa was finally able to remove her eyes from the personification of perfection, her cheeks were still deep crimson. A few minutes later Sephiroth had a fire going.

"Why do we need a fire in the middle of the desert?" Yuffie asked naively.

"Because we're spending the night hear while we come up with a plan," Sephiroth replied annoyance evident in his voice, "It's it's really cold at night in the desert." By then Vincent had finished cataloging their almost nonexistent supplies.

"I'm finished," he said, "but your not going to like it."

"Alright, bring on the bad news," Sephiroth sighed. Vincent and Seph went over the supplies while Yuffie went off to gather fire wood and Tifa took a bath in the stream.

"Heres where we stand," Vincent said, "Since me and Yuffie left our supplies at an inn because of the need for speed we haven't got anything in the way of food,bedding, medical supplies, or extra clothing. We've only got about five materia between us. One fire, two summons(Ramuh and Leviathan), an All, and a Cure1."

"Fantastic..." Sephiroth mumbled sarcastically dropping his head into his hands.

"But wait, theres more," Vincent said, " We've almost no money, and even if we had it I'm sure Avalanche has put the alert out already so we'd be reported if we show our faces within 3 miles of a town." This was just great, here they were running from one of the world's most powerful armies and they had little more then the clothing on their backs.

"Well as you can see I've nothing more then what I'm wearing and Masumane. As for Tifa, I'm not sure but i doubt she has anything more then a potion or two." Sephiroth stated, " so it seems the first item on our agenda is the acquisition of food for tonight."

"Fish or fiend?" Vincent asked with an amused smile on his face.

"I don't care," Sephiroth said simply, "whatevers easiest." He sat and stared into the fire.How was he going to stop this ridiculous war? He could use the black materia to meteor the capitols, if the planet hadn't confiscated it.There weren't enough neutral people to join him so... fiends maybe? Maybe, but that would be such a chore. He was so absorbed in his thoughts he didn't even notice someone calling his name.

"Sephy?Sephy?Sephy whats wrong?" Tifa asked, "Sephy?Sephy?!!"Now she was getting annoyed.

"SEPHIROTH!!!!!" She screamed in his ear.The result was Sephiroth jumping up and nearly impaling Tifa with masumane, luckily he came to his senses and diverted the thrust.

"What the hell was that for!!!" Tifa shouted,her near death experience had put her in a fairly bad mood, "I was just trying to speak to you, there's no reason to go all psycho on me!"

"Maybe if you hadn't screamed in my ear I wouldn't have been startled into lunging at you." Sephiroth replied coldly.

"Ya well..." Tifa seethed. He was right, but he did almost kill her. "Just be more careful next time."

"As you wish..." The potential deadly situation was broken up when Yuffie bounded over and demanded to know what was for dinner.

"Wadda you mean whatever I can catch?!" she shouted almost hysterically.

"I mean we have nothing more then what we have on and our weapons," Sephiroth explained calmly, "So unless you've got a dinner summon we eat whatever we can catch." And with that he got up and strode out of camp, leaving Tifa to deal with the hungry klepto.

He wandered a bit before running into some fiends. After killing them Sephiroth decided it was time he got a new trench coat so he picked up the corpse of a dual horn and started towards camp.

Back at camp Valentine had dragged in and roasted the remains land worm. Being an ex-Turk/demon he didn't have any problems eating the thing, Tifa and Yuffie were of a different opinion however.

"You can't really expect me to eat this can you?" Yuffie demanded angrily.

"That or starve." was the only response Vincent gave. Yuffie tried to argue with him, but gave up after several minutes of Vince ignore her and resigned to pouting. Tifa tried the worm but couldn't keep it down. She spent the next several minutes vomiting out the contents of her stomach, it was around this time that Sephiroth returned carrying the dead cow on his shoulder much to Yuffie's delight.

"Ya!" she shouted, "Sephy found some beef!We can make hamburgers!"

"You've got dinner to night," Sephiroth said motioning to the dead worm, "I have plans for this."

"Plans?What could be more important then food?" Yuffie almost screamed, she wasn't about to let Sephiroth eat the thing on his own.

"We're going to eat it," he replied, "just not today." He set the bull down then chopped down a few palms with Masumane, and set about making drying racks from the logs.

"Wadda you mean 'not today'?" Yuffie demanded, "I'm hungry now!!!"

"He's making jerky out of it."Vincent said,not looking up from his meal, "so settle in we'll be here a few days more." Yuffie sat down by the fire and started muttering something about starvation. Vincent smiled she looked so adorable... the smile slide from his face as he came to a horrible realization, they were stuck here for two or three days with Yuffie and there was no tv or anything else to distract her. Two hours after waking she'd probably have them all wanting to tear their ears off to shut out her voice.He might be able to escape by going hunting, but he was afraid of what Sephiroth might do if Yuffie aggravated him enough, he'd talked to the Turks a lot before the war the ex-general's punishments were still famous even after his death.

Tifa finally finished emptying her stomach and returned to the fire. After having almost the exact same conversation as Yuffie over the dual horn's carcass she decided that she'd help Seph stretch out the skin and hang up the meat.When they were done Sephiroth spitted the organs and the head, then roasted em.

"I thought we weren't going to eat it tonight," Tifa said as she popped an eyeball into her mouth.Yuffie was eating the muscle off the head and Seph was eating the heart cause he's weird like that.

"Well I couldn't let you starve could i?" he said with a soft chuckle. The rest of dinner passed in silence; afterwards the group decided to retire, unfortunately no one but Vince was dressed for the desert's cold nights. Yuffie curled up in a ball near the fire and Vince draped his cloak over her, he then leaned against a boulder and went into his trance like sleep. Seph and Tifa weren't so lucky, with Seph in just his pants and Tifa in a tank top and a skirt, the had to huddle together for warmth.

"I knew you'd warm up to me sooner or later,"Tifa whispered sarcastically.

"This never leaves the oasis," Sephiroth hissed half-heartedly but Tifa was already asleep and he really didn't care all that much.

The next morning the group awoke to Sephiroth cooking steak and eggs.

"Yum eggs!" Yuffie exclaimed, "Where'd you find em Sephy?"

"I'm going to ask you nicely, please do not refer to me by that name again."

"What's wrong with calling you Sephy,Sephy?"

"It's a horrible butchery of my name."

"Oh but it suites you so well..."About this time Tifa walked over.

"Whats for breakfast Sephy?" Sephiroth shot her a death glare and stalked away to practice with his sword.

"Geez what's eating him?"

"His pet name."

"He'll get over it eventually."

Author's Note:Finished,not as long as i hoped it'd be but it'll have to do .I apologize to anyone thats angered about me writing a yuffintineside story,


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